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The President of ETH Zurich, Prof. Lino Guzzella, will not stand for another term of office at the end of the year. He will continue in his capacity as President of ETH Zurich to the full extent until the end of 2018. In the last few years, Lino Guzzella has succeeded in further strengthening ETH Zurich’s reputation as an internationally recognised university with innovative teaching, top-class research and technology transfer. He has been President since 2015 and previously rector of ETH Zurich since 2012.

Prof. Dr Lino Guzzella (Foto: ETH Zurich / Giulia Marthaler)

Prof. Lino Guzzella will not stand for another term of office as President of ETH Zurich. The ETH Board respects his decision and would like to thank Lino Guzzella for his commitment and his responsible work for ETH Zurich.

The ETH Board and Lino Guzzella have agreed that after the expiry of his term of office at the end of the year, he will resume his post of Professor of Thermotronics in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich. Lino Guzzella held the office of Rector for three years and has been President of ETH Zurich since the beginning of 2015. After this demanding time, he would like to devote himself once more to teaching and research from 2019.

“Lino Guzzella has made a substantial contribution to ETH Zurich further enhancing its excellent reputation as a place of teaching and research both at a national and at an international level,” says ETH Board President Fritz Schiesser and adds: “I would like to thank him on behalf of the ETH Board for his great commitment and wish him all the best for the future. With his new competitive strategy for ETH Zurich, he has laid an important foundation for the future.”

Strategic development of ETH Zurich

International competitive pressure in tertiary education is on the rise. Lino Guzzella promoted important strategic initiatives to ensure that ETH Zurich will continue to be among the world’s best universities in the future. Many countries are making massive investments in education and research; Chinese universities, in particular, are very well equipped today and use their resources effectively.

It is against this background that the ETH Board welcomes the “ETH+” initiative of Lino Guzzella and the entire Executive Board, which envisages the exploration of new subject areas, for instance through the establishment of additional professorships. “ETH+” stands for an exceptionally positive momentum for ETH Zurich. Innovative ideas for teaching and for new interdisciplinary research approaches are being developed.

Commitment to top-class research, teaching and technology transfer

With regard to top-class research, one of the highlights of Lino Guzzella’s term of office was the successful launch of the focal areas of data sciences, personalised health and Advanced Manufacturing. As a co-founder of the Swiss Data Science Center, in particular, he promoted trail-blazing research for the digital society of the future.

Before he was appointed President, Lino Guzzella had been Rector of ETH Zurich between 2012 and 2014 and was thus responsible for teaching. He had set up the Critical Thinking Initiative, which besides methodological competence and disciplinary knowledge provides students with the wherewithal to work on complex, interdisciplinary and system-oriented problems. Lino Guzzella regarded it as important that students would not merely acquire knowledge but also develop into personalities with a critical mind.

Development of the Bachelor of Human Medicine

A great deal of credit must be given to Lino Guzzella for the development of the new Bachelor’s programme in Human Medicine, which ETH Zurich has been offering since autumn 2017. Even as Rector, he played a large part in the development of this academic course, which besides the classic medical aspects also takes into consideration areas of molecular biology and medical technology.

Search procedure for a successor

A new President of ETH Zurich will be appointed by the Federal Council on application of the ETH Board. The search procedure will be initiated immediately.